Yami no Futago
by SeaSpectre160
Summary: Boukenger: A Precious is found that could revive a hated enemy of the Boukengers, and one of their own turns out to be half the key to unlock its powers. Part of the United AU.
1. Prologue

**Okay, so I was going to wait until I finished 'Uragirimono', but I hit a block on it, and this was already set to go. I will be updating every Friday or Saturday with this, and hopefully 'Uragirimono' will be finished by the time I post the epilogue. After this, I will be turning my attention to my Digimon fics, so my next Sentai fic won't be up for a looong while. I have a LOT of unfinished fics to complete before I start any new projects.**

**So this fic is set in May of 2009, 2 years after the Boukenger finale. There might be small references to my in-progress Harry Potter/Magiranger crossover 'Wizards and Mahōtsukai', because that is set in 2008 and 2009, but there won't be much, or possibly not at all - I'm still working on the FINAL draft.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Boukenger or any of its characters.**

* * *

They'd reached the front porch, now. Above the twins' squalling, he could hear their running footsteps and shouts to get something to pick the lock. Once they got that done, they'd have to deal with the coffee table jammed under the doorknob, but that was his last line of defence. He had to seal the artifact away before they could get their hands on it. It was unlikely they'd know what to do with it, but they could easily sell it, and it might make its way to someone who did.

Grabbing the stone off his desk, he turned to the chest he'd designed specifically to keep it out of the wrong hands. He could hear the lock clicking, and knew the cheap, flimsy table wouldn't hold them for long. He was just glad his wife and sister were out today, that they were out of harm's way. He placed the stone inside the chest and shut the lid. Now all he had to do was set the lock.

Picking the girl up, he took her hand and gently pushed her thumb to the first scanner. He set his twenty-one-month-old daughter back down, grabbing his small brass magnifying glass – her favourite toy, and giving it to her in an effort to calm her down. One might think him insane for setting the lock to his children's fingerprints instead of his own, but nobody would ever guess; people would assume it would unlock with his thumbprint and hopefully leave them alone. He then turned his attention to her younger (by thirty-six minutes) brother, scanning his tiny thumbprint just as the crack of splintering wood reached his ears.

The vital task complete, he took the babies to the farthest corner of the room. He kissed each of their foreheads, whispering: "Papa loves you." Then he pulled his gun out of the desk drawer and placed himself between his children and the door.

The first one through got a poorly-aimed bullet to the shoulder, but the father wasn't so lucky with the others. One bullet went into his stomach, and two more hit his chest. The twins' cries grew even louder as he fell to the floor.

One of the thieves stepped over him and tugged at the now-locked chest. "It won't open!" he shouted, "Gimme a hand!" Two came over and pulled on the lid as well. It would not open, of course. "We'll have to take it with us."

A fifth smacked him on the back of the head. "Aw, forget it," he ordered, "We're not lugging that thing around with us. It's too heavy to be the stone, and who'll buy a big, heavy box that won't open, anyway? This whole thing was a waste of time." The man then turned towards the children, eyeing them. Their father could only gasp and struggle weakly as the leader knelt down next to them. "Or maybe not… I always said the kids we use are too soft. We need one raised to understand our line of work, and here's two up for grabs."

"But Boss," one pointed out, "How the hell are we gonna raise a couple of babies?"

"We won't. That girl who broke her toe last week is too big now to be of much other use anymore, but she's old enough to take care of them." The leader paused. "Well, maybe just one. Two is a little much to handle. We'll take the boy, they tend to last longer."

The father watched in horror as his son was picked up and carried out of the room. In desperation, he screamed the boy's name.

The last thief paused at the door, then doubled back, pointing his gun between the man's eyes before pulling the trigger.

The father's wife and sister would return from their shopping trip a few hours later, only to find his dead body, his daughter wailing for him and tugging on his cold hand. "Papa… Papa…"

* * *

**Yes, this is short, but it's just the prologue. I will see you guys next week!**

**Next week: Eiji meets a strange girl who looks somehow familiar, and Kaze no Shizuka joins the party.**


	2. Chapter 1: Unexpected Connections

**Okay, here's Chapter One! I hope I get more response from this than I did with the prologue, I have to wonder if anyone even noticed it! Of course, it's still early, and I wouldn't expect much anyway.**

**Ages are based on the actors' birthdates, mostly - I made Natsuki a year younger:**

**Eiji: 28**

**Satoru: 27**

**Sōta: 25**

**Sakura: 22**

**Masumi and Natsuki: 21**

**This fic is set in May 2009 (specifically May 10th to 13th). This is part of my United AU, which means that all Sentai teams exist in the same universe and interact with one another. See my profile for a list of what is and what is NOT part of this AU, in terms of series, movies, and fanfics.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Boukenger or any of its characters.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Unexpected Connections

"This has got to be a joke," Eiji grumbled inwardly as he nearly tripped over another rock in the ridiculously long driveway in the middle of nowhere, "Why did I have to go to collect the Precious alone again? Oh yeah, Akashi and Sakura won't be back until later today, Masumi and Sōta are on another assignment, and Natsuki's eight months pregnant." The Ashu hunter chuckled briefly as he recalled the expression of utter shock that'd appeared on Masumi's face when his wife of not even a year had broken the news. Of course, that meant that there were currently only three active Boukengers right now.

Eiji breathed a sigh of relief when the large wooden house finally came into view. It was worn and weathered, but he could tell that it was sturdy nonetheless. He finished off the carrot he'd packed as a snack, and headed up to the door. At least there was no real danger in this assignment. The family that lived there had actually contacted SGS asking them to collect the Precious, and there hadn't been many more problems with any Negative Syndicate. After all, Gaja, Ryuuwon, Yami no Yaiba, and the Questers were all dead, and Dark Shadow were the only threat left. Without all the other villains, Eiji had originally thought the thrill of being a Boukenger would dim considerably, but he'd been wrong. Evil competitors or not, there were still assorted booby traps and natural pitfalls or some other obstacle while retrieving a Precious. At least this one promised to be an easy task, besides the long hike up here.

He knocked on the wooden door confidently and waited for it to open. Inside, he could hear a bunch of kids shouting. Eventually, a pair of footsteps came to the door, and someone pulled it partway open. At first, Eiji wondered where the person was, then he glanced downward and realised that it was a little girl. He quickly pulled on a friendly smile. "Hello," he greeted her, "Is your Mama or Papa home?"

The girl stared up at him for a few seconds, then squeaked and slammed the door shut in his face."I guess they don't get a lot of visitors out here," Eiji thought, "I wonder if I should knock again." Just then, the door opened again, this time by a middle-aged woman.

"Hello," she said cautiously, "Are you the man SGS sent?"

"Yes ma'am. Takaoka Eiji, at your service. May I come in?"

"Of course." The woman - whom Eiji assumed was the same Ikeda Michi who'd contacted them - opened the door all the way and stepped aside to let him through. "We never thought there was anything dangerous about it," she explained as she led Eiji down the hall, "But last week, some strange young woman arrived and tried to steal it."

"Really?"

"Yes. I never saw her, though. I was out getting groceries. My niece, Matsuri, was looking after her cousins for me. She's a nursing student, and lives on-campus, but she still returns home to help me whenever she can. She told me about the incident when I came home, but I didn't even believe her, until I saw that." She pointed at the wood-paneled wall, and Eiji realised that it bore several deep gouge marks. "That's solid oak. Those marks are far too deep to be from some mishap Matsuri might try to cover up. My eldest, Nobuaki, tried to fight the woman off. From what Matsuri told me, he was lucky not to be seriously hurt. She wasn't interested in him."

"And this girl, what stopped her from taking the Precious? The artifact she was after." He had to add the last part for clarification when she blanked in confusion.

"It's in a special chest my younger brother Yasuka designed to contain it. Before his death nearly twenty years ago. You need two fingerprints to open it: Matsuri's and her twin brother's. But we haven't seen him since their father was killed. It's a rather sad story. Some men attacked them in this very house, killed Yasuka, and took the boy. The twins were nearly two years old at the time. My sister-in-law, Chise, was so traumatised by the loss that she's been living in a mental institution since then, the poor woman. So I raised Matsuri instead."

"Is the chest heavy?" Eiji asked, "I'm not sure if I'd be able to carry it all the way back to my car." He'd taken a rental car (on SGS's bill, of course) to get out there, but the condition of the driveway had been too poor for him to drive it up there. Even the family car was parked at the end by the road.

"It is a little, but I'm sure Nobuaki would be glad to help you. He'll do anything to get out of the house nowadays."

"I'd like to know more about the woman who tried to steal the Precious. We're used to dealing with such competition, but any information would be useful."

"You can ask Matsuri. She saw pretty much everything." They came to a back door and entered into a large clearing. Nearly a dozen children, ranging in age from six or seven to their mid-teens, were running about, a young woman about a few years younger than him half-heartedly chastising them. Ikeda-san whistled sharply, and all the activity came to an abrupt halt, the actual number of children turning out to be just five now that they weren't all running all over the place and making him count the same kid twice. "Lunchtime, everyone," their mother announced, "Nobuaki, please bring Yasuka-oji's chest to the sitting room. Matsuri, this man from SGS would like to speak with you about the woman from last week." All the kids scampered inside after her, leaving Eiji with the woman who led him to a small sitting room. The voices of her younger cousins were all but completely muted as she shut the door.

A feeling of recognition came over Eiji, but he had no idea why. Her face looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't place where he could've seen it before. Anyway, that wasn't important right now. "Tell me what happened," he requested, "My name is Takaoka Eiji, by the way."

Matsuri motioned for him to sit, and he did. "Last Wednesday," she began, "Oba-san went shopping for groceries, and I was here, minding my cousins. They were playing outside, and I was preparing our lunch. I heard a noise in my father's old study, and I thought it might be Ai or Yūna, they're always up to something. So I went to chase them out of there, but instead I found a young woman dressed like a kunoichi tugging at my father's special treasure chest. I screamed, and Nobuaki came in. She had a pair of kunai, and he only barely managed to avoid getting cut. Then she left."

Eiji leaned forward, having caught a very interesting bit of information. "A kunoichi, you said? Was she dressed in blue, with this sort of nasal voice and overly childish attitude?"

Matsuri's eyes widened. "Yes. Apparently she was very upset at being caught in the act. Why? Do you know who she is?"

Eiji growled. "She works for a criminal organisation called Dark Shadow. We've dealt with her in the past, but the whole group seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth a few months ago. They left the country once, but at least we had some idea of where they were." He reached for his GoGo Changer. "I should inform the rest of my team right away. It will only take a minute, if you don't mind." Matsuri nodded mutely, staring in obvious fascination at the henshin device. "This is BoukenSilver, come in."

Makino-sensei answered. _"Yes?"_

"I'm at the Ikeda residence now, but there's some important news. Last week, Kaze no Shizuka tried to steal the Precious. Looks like Dark Shadow's come back out of hiding."

* * *

Matsuri listened in interest to Takaoka-san's conversation with his colleagues. She noticed that he kept referring to them as colours, excluding 'Makino-sensei', who 'Black' kept calling 'Jii-san'. As far as she could tell, he was 'Silver', and there were also two other men called 'Black' and 'Blue', and a woman who went by 'Yellow'. 'Black' didn't seem to like being referred to by a colour. Matsuri assumed those were codenames.

_"So what was Shizuka-chan up to this time?"_ Blue was saying.

_"Something either really disastrous or really annoying,"_Black replied, _"At least Yaiba's gone."_ Matsuri blinked at the utter distaste in his tone when he mentioned this 'Yaiba' guy. _"I'd rather not deal with him again, in this lifetime or the next. Silver, just secure the Precious, chest and all, and we'll figure things out from there. Blue and I have just finished up, so we should get back at the same time."_

Just then, Nobuaki poked his head in. "I've got the box on a dolly from the garden shed," he announced. He jerked his head to indicate that it was just outside in the hallway. Takaoka-san stood up, muttering a good-bye into his wrist communicator.

"This is it?" he asked Nobuaki.

Her cousin nodded. He looked exhausted from having to lift it up onto the dolly, but was trying not to show it. Matsuri nearly laughed. Nobuaki could be so ridiculous at times!

Takaoka-san examined the box. His eyes rested on the small photograph that'd been inlaid between the two fingerprint scanners: a family picture of herself, her parents, and her twin brother when they were babies. Matsuri stood and walked over. She loved that picture. She would often go into Tou-san's old study to look at it. Matsuri missed her father, even though she had barely known him when he'd died. She still went to see her mother in the mental hospital once in a while. And her brother... Matsuri had never told anyone this, but whenever she looked at his picture, she felt certain that he was still alive out there.

Sometimes she'd have strange dreams about climbing mountains or going into caves to get some sort of strange object that shone so brightly that she couldn't make out what it actually looked like. Then, about three and a half years ago, a new feature had been added: large red lizard-creatures and white humanoid monsters blocking her path. Only a few months or so after, the dreams changed. They became nightmares of some figure with glowing yellow eyes and a thousand rainbow-coloured projectiles flying at her, or a choking black mist that crept and threatened to swallow her whole.

Those nightmares more or less stopped about a year later. The last one had features a bronze figurine of three dragon heads, and a huge amount of the black mist leaping out of her chest and reaching out to five people, who - although she couldn't make out their faces or recognize them in any way - felt extremely important to her. The dream had ended on a happy, if somewhat odd, note, with the black mist being destroyed by a warm light shining from her heart just before she'd woken up.

Matsuri remembered reading somewhere that twins were rumoured to have some sort of psychic connection, and she believed that those dreams were proof that her twin brother **was** alive; they were her link to him, wherever he was. She often wondered if he had dreams like hers.

* * *

Eiji would have no problem pushing the chest down the driveway, and the kid looked like he was having trouble. But he didn't point it out. Nobuaki clearly wanted to be seen as the strong 'man of the house', and the Dazzling Adventurer wasn't going to spoil that for him. He'd been a young teenager, once.

Wow, thinking that made him sound _old_. He was only 28.

Matsuri, walking alongside them, sighed, again gazing at the picture on the chest. "If you manage to open the chest," she said hesitantly, "Will you let us know what is in it? I've been trying to figure out from my father's notes for years. So far, all I know is that it's very unique and dangerous, and that he found it during an excavation of some ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico. There might be some more in formation or clues on the internet, but our computer's connection is shaky at best."

"He was an archaeologist?"

"Yes. Oba-san said he'd been fascinated with it since they were children. He wanted to be a treasure hunter when he grew up."

"Seriously? Three other SGS agents I know used be treasure hunters by profession before joining the team. Akashi is considered the number-one treasure hunter, and Masumi and Natsuki spent two years travelling together before... what?"

Matsuri had reacted strangely to something he'd said. "My brother..." she whispered, "My twins brother's name was Masumi."

Eiji's jaw dropped. He'd thought there was something familiar about his face... but that was impossible! Wasn't it? Masumi himself had admitted that he'd never known his parents, that he'd been raised by a group of abusive outlaw treasure hunters.

There was only one way to be sure. He reached into his pants' pocket and drew out a photograph of all six Boukengers, taken shortly before Akashi and Sakura had left for outer space. "You looked familiar to me somehow," he explained, handing it to her, "Now I think I known why. The picture's a couple years old, but take a look at the guy in black."

Her face paled as she looked. Eiji could see the resemblance now that he'd figured it out. She and Masumi shared the same eyes, the same nose, and relatively the same face shape. "Oh my..." she gasped.

Her cousin peered at it over her shoulder. "No way!" he cried, "That guy looks a lot like you!" He stared at Eiji. "Are you saying that's her twin brother?!" Eiji nodded. "Cool!"

"What a coincidence." The three of them all spun around when the annoyingly nasal voice suddenly entered the conversation. There stood Kaze no Shizuka, grinning cheekily. "The other half of the key to open the chest is BoukenBlack! I knew if I hung around and listened in I'd find out how to get that thing open! This'll be easier than I thought!"

Eiji moved between Shizuka and the others. "It would be," he told her, "If there was a chance that I'd allow it!" He reached for his Go Go Changer.

Then he heard Matsuri's scream. He twisted around to see her and Nobuaki struggling in the grasp of one of Dark Shadow's monster creations. "Takaoka-san!" she cried, "Help!" Eiji started to run back to them, but the Tsukumogami took a big leap over him and landed next to Shizuka.

The kunoichi laughed. "Oh, really?" she commented, "I think there's a very good chance you'll allow it. Unless you want Bakudangami to kill these two right now."

Eiji hesitated. "But you said you needed Matsuri-san to open the chest," he pointed out, "Killing her would ruin everything for you, wouldn't it?"

"We only need her fingerprint; she doesn't have to be alive for that to work. And the boy means nothing to us at all. So it's your choice, BoukenSilver. Hand over the chest, or they both die."

The Ashu Watcher was at a crossroads. If Dark Shadow wanted the Precious, then it was likely to be very dangerous, especially in their hands or the hands of whomever had hired them. But at the same time, lives were at stake. And they were the long-lost relatives of his friend. He couldn't let Shizuka kill them.

He glared at Shizuka. " You'd better keep your word," he growled, "that they won't be harmed if I give you this."

Eiji pushed the heavy chest slowly over to Shizuka, glaring at her all the way. He glanced over to the hostages as he set it down a few feet away from them. Nobuaki looked pale and shaken, like he was trying his best not to faint. Matsuri, on the other hand, only betrayed her fear through her eyes. Her face was calm and set, and it was at that point that it really struck Eiji that she and Masumi were twins. Despite their completely different upbringings, they had the same strength. He saw her gripping her younger cousin's hand in reassurance.

"Step back," Shizuka ordered. Eiji did as he was told, his hand ready to activate his Changer and henshin at a moment's notice. Shizuka nodded towards Bakudangami, who growled and shoved Nobuaki at Eiji. The youth stumbled and almost fell, but was caught by the Dazzling Adventurer.

"Now return her!" Eiji demanded, "Or no deal!"

Shizuka only grinned. "Too bad, BoukenSilver! We still need this one." The Tsukumogami pushed Matsuri into his superior's arms and marched forward, picking up the chest as if it weighed nothing.

Seeing the young woman gasp as a sharp blade was pressed to her throat, Eiji made up his mind and charged. He didn't get very far, though. Bakudangami caught him by the neck with a large hand, having tucked the chest under his other arm. Gasping, Eiji hit his Changer. "BOUKENGER!" he choked, "START UP!"

Eiji transformed, and twisted himself out of the Tsukumogami's grip. He slashed at the monster with his Sagaspear and tried again to go after Shizuka, but the big brute fired lasers from his wrist and hit BoukenSilver directly in the back.

Hitting the dirt, cursing in pain, BoukenSilver looked up just in time to see Shizuka, still holding Matsuri, ninja-streak away. Nobuaki bravely (and recklessly) tried to tackle Bakudangami, but was swatted away easily. A second later, the two of them were the only ones left on the battlefield - if you could call that ten-second skirmish a battle.

Eiji punched the ground and de-henshined as he realised he'd lost both the Precious and an innocent civilian.

* * *

**Well, that's all for this week! Next time: Masumi learns about his past and meets his sister for the first time, then shit REALLY gets crazy when we learn what the Precious is and what Dark Shadow wants with it.**

**Until then, this is Spectre signing out!**


	3. Chapter 2: The Long-Overdue Meeting

**And here's another chapter! Lots of love to my ONLY follower (hint hint) moonandstars1516!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Boukenger or its characters. Matsuri is my own creation.**

* * *

Chapter 2: The Long-Overdue Meeting

Natsuki was at a loss for what to do, or what to say. Her husband had been staring blankly at the wall for ten minutes now, ever since Ei-chan had reported the disastrous turn of events and the big revelation about Masumi's past. Natsuki was worried about him; he'd never been like this before. As if reading her mind, the baby in her swollen abdomen kicked restlessly, as if sensing her distress.

Unable to take any more silence, Natsuki gently shook Masumi's shoulder. "Masumi?" she murmured, "Masumi, please. Talk to Natsuki." Masumi slowly turned his gaze from the wall to her.

"It's happening again," he muttered softly, "Again I'm the key to potentially destroying the world. And what makes it even worse is that this time my own flesh and blood has been dragged into it."

Natsuki felt a lump in her throat. "You're not still blaming yourself for that? Masumi, that was a long time ago, and you've more than made up for your mistake." Usually Natsuki would insist that he'd done nothing wrong at all, that the disaster with the Three-Headed Dragon of Darkness was all because of Yami no Yaiba. But now was not the time to argue about that. "Yeah," Sōta added from where he and Makino-sensei were standing in the doorway. "You have to move on, or it'll drive you insane. Trust me, I know." Natsuki bit her lip, knowing that Sōta-san was serious if he was talking about his own experiences, when he usually liked to pretend they never happened.

Masumi grumbled and stood up, going over to the computer table. "What did Eiji say my father's name was?" he asked, pulling up a search engine.

"Saitō Yasuka," Makino-sensei replied. Natsuki moved over to Masumi's side as he finished typing in the name. He clicked on the first in a short list of links. Scans of two old newspaper articles popped up, and Masumi read aloud:

_"'Mysterious Artifact Found in Mayan Ruins. An Osaka University archaeology expedition returns home today with what is rumoured to be a stone used in Ancient Mayan rituals for its supposed mystical powers related to the underworld Xibalba (sheh-ball-buh) and the undead. Lead archaeologist Saitō Yasuka hopes that this will give historians today a better understanding of the religious beliefs of these ancient people.'_

_'Child Taken, Father Murdered. Last night, the home of archaeologist Saitō Yasuka was broken into by multiple persons unknown, leaving Saitō dead and taking his one-year-old son Masumi with them. Police believe the suspects were attempting to steal an artifact discovered by Saitō seven months ago, but failed due to the security measures taken to protect it. The boy's twin sister was left alive and unharmed. No suspects have been identified as of yet.'"_

He stopped there, his hands shaking. Natsuki put her arms around him and hugged him gently. Masumi had often wondered about his parents, although she was the only one who knew this. To everyone else, he acted like he didn't care when the matter came up, but that was just that: an act. It was really a question that had plagued him since he was old enough to grasp the concept that he didn't know who his parents were, and Natsuki wasn't sure if this was the kind of answer he'd been expecting.

There was an awkward silence as she and the others tried to figure out the right thing to say. After all, what do you say after a revelation like that?

Something whipped behind Natsuki's head, and she turned to see a piece of old parchment paper floating in mid-air. "What the?" Sōta-san gasped. Masumi took a step towards it, a strange look of recognition on his face.

It got even weirder when a familiar voice echoed through the room, seemingly coming from that strip of paper. _"BoukenBlack,"_ it said, _"Come to the hill where you confronted Yami no Yaiba, and come alone. Otherwise, your precious sister will never see the light of day again."_

Natsuki gasped and looked at her husband. "Masumi..."

"I've got to go," he stated. Natsuki considered arguing with him, but then she caught the expression in his eyes. And then she knew that there was nothing that would stand between him and getting his sister back. He needed to find her, his closest living relative. Natsuki could see it etched on every inch on his face.

"But Masumi," Sōta-san protested, "It's probably a trap."

Masumi ran his fingers through his hair with a frustrated huff. "I know, I know. But there's no other way to retrieve the Precious without tangling with Dark Shadow anyway. And with Matsuri's life on the line, I'm not going to sit around and hold it off."

* * *

Matsuri pulled at the ropes around her wrists, trying to find the knot. She'd been able to untangle knots and snarls in her aunt's yarn and her cousins' hair since she was little. All she had to do was find the darn thing and untie it, then maybe she could make a run for it. It'd been about an hour since she'd been tied up and left alone in this small room. She hadn't seen that huge, freakish monster, or that Shizuka girl either. Maybe they were just going to leave her there to die.

She couldn't die. Michi-oba needed her to help take care of all her cousins; she couldn't just leave them hanging. And she had still yet to reunite with her brother. Masumi... Her dreams had been right; he was alive. After all these years of hoping, she could _not_ die before she finally got to meet him!

The lock on her prison door suddenly rattled, and she scooted back into the far corner, struggling for frantically with the knots. The door opened, and Shizuka entered, smirking. "Stand up," she said. Matsuri tried to get up by using the wall for support, but was apparently taking too long, because the kunoichi grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. "It's time to make yourself useful."

She half-dragged Matsuri out of the room, then stopped and shoved a sack over her head. She'd done the same thing before taking her to her prison, so Matsuri had no clue where the building was. She would've had difficulty escaping, even if she'd gotten her hands free.

Matsuri was led through the halls of whatever building she was being held in, out along what felt like some kind of dirt path littered with sticks and leaves. In a forest, maybe? Then a pair of large, strong hands grabbed her, and she gasped, realising that it was Shizuka's monstrous companion. He lifted her off her feet, and they were suddenly moving very fast. When she was set down again, Matsuri could hear the crunching of sand and dried grass beneath her shoes.

The sack was lifted off her head, and Matsuri looked around, taking in her surroundings. The three of them were standing on a grassy, sandy bluff overlooking the ocean. Her father's heavy treasure chest was sitting a few feet away.

Shizuka pulled Matsuri over to the chest and pulled out one of her kunai. Matsuri gulped, but Shizuka simply cut the ropes binding her wrists. "Don't even think of running," she warned, "You're not leaving until you help us get the Precious."

"Kaze no Shizuka!" Matsuri's head snapped around at the voice. A man her age was striding up the path. His dark, shoulder-length hair was pulled half up, and he wore a black and beige jacket and black jeans. She felt her breath catch in her throat when she saw his face. He wasn't smiling now - actually, he looked rather pissed off - but there was no mistaking him.

It was her brother. Masumi was actually there, in the flesh, after nearly twenty years of separation.

He stopped a half-dozen feet away, his gaze repeatedly flickering between Matsuri, Shizuka, the monster, Matsuri, the chest, and back to Matsuri again. "Alright, I'm here," he said, "What the hell do you want from me?"

Shizuka only grinned, like she was trying to be a cute little girl and a deadly ninja at the same time. "You're gonna help us get this Precious, and then you and your sister can go. That's all we want."

Masumi glared at her, like he wasn't buying everything she was saying. "Since when can your word be trusted?" he snapped.

Shizuka looked annoyed now. "That doesn't matter," she retorted grumpily, "Can you really afford _not_ to take my word? Do you honestly think I'll let a prisoner go free for nothing?" She squeezed Matsuri's arm painfully. For such a skinny girl, she was surprisingly strong.

"Okay, fine. What do you need me to do?"

Shizuka shoved Matsuri into the monster's grasp, who dragged her a further ten feet away. Masumi took a step towards them, but the grip on her tightened, causing her to gasp in pain. "Not so fast, BoukenBlack. You've got to do your part first. Get over here." Masumi cautiously walked over to Shizuka and the chest, keeping a worried eye on Matsuri. "Put the very centre of your right thumb on the scanner on the right." Glaring the whole time, he did so. The high-tech lock made a beeping noise, and a green light activated over the scanner. "Now move away."

"How is this doing anything?" Matsuri demanded, "What could possibly be in that chest that you would go to such extreme measures to get it?"

"You don't know Dark Shadow," Masumi stated, addressing her directly for the first time, " They'll resort to any dirty tricks to get what they want. One time they tried to sacrifice half a dozen people, including two of my friends. One of which is now _my wife_." He glared daggers at Shizuka, letting her know how he felt about that. It took Matsuri a second for the information in that last sentence to process. His wife? Her brother was already married? Not for the first time in her life, she cursed whoever had separated them and made her miss out on something so important.

"You can tell her your stories later," Shizuka snapped, "Back off so she can do her part." Her twin took a few more steps back, and Matsuri was shoved forward. "Do the same thing with the other scanner."

Matsuri hesitated, looking over at her brother. Masumi glared at Shizuka and the monster one more time, then nodded to her. She took a deep breath and pressed her thumb against the metal scanner, noting that it was actually too small for it, but the perfect size for a child's digits, or a baby's. It hummed softly, and then beeped, and the green light came on. It was followed by a clicking noise, and Matsuri realised that it was the chest's main locking mechanism.

Shizuka actually squealed in delight, bouncing over to the chest and shoving Matsuri out of the way to get at it. Masumi moved forward to catch her as she stumbled, and pulled her back up onto her feet. "You okay?" he whispered to her. Matsuri couldn't find any words; she nodded shakily. She wanted to hug him so badly right now, but she knew that he hadn't even known she'd existed until today. It would probably be weird for him.

"Got it!" Shizuka cried. She held up and obsidian stone, slightly bigger than her palm, with bits of jade inlaid to form the image of an eye, with all sorts of strange runes carved around the sides. "The Eye of Ah Pukuh!"

That was it? But the chest had been so heavy... Matsuri's internal query trailed off when she took a closer look and saw that the inside was just filled with gravel, probably so that the extra weight would make it difficult to carry away. Michi-oba had always said her father had been a clever man.

Masumi was glaring at Shizuka, his eyes focusing on the stone. "Who hired you to get it?" he asked harshly, "It can't be the men who killed pur father; they're all dead. Yaiba slaughtered them all right in front of me." Matsuri looked up at her brother, only just noticing that he was about a head taller than her. There was a haunted look in his eyes and a slight tremor in his voice as he continued. "So who, then? Or do you have some other plans besides selling it?"

Shizuka laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she taunted, "Bakudangami. You know what to do." She handed the so-called 'Eye of Ah Pukuh' to her monster, who turned and ran off at blinding speed. "It's not a well-known fact in history, but the ancient Mayan sorcerors used the Eye to replentish their forces when they suffered heavy casualties in a war. They'd perform a ceremony to raise fallen warriors from their side and their enemy's, under their complete control, of All it takes is a simple exchange - a life for a life. An old or wounded slave who couldn't do any work was of no use, so they would trade his or her life to revive a warrior, bringing him back from the dead under the command of whoever holds the stone. All they need is to be present on the battlefield where the warrior died."

Matsuri heard her brother gasp beside her. "That's why you brought us _here_!" he exclaimed, "You want to revive Yami no Yaiba!"

"That's right!" _And_ he won't be turning his back on us this time!" With that, she ninja-streaked away, in the same direction the monster 'Bakudangami' had gone.

Masumi snarled and took off after her. "I'm not gonna let that happen!" Matsuri followed, but she wasn't nearly as fast as the rest of them, and lost sight of her brother as he raced around a bend.

Suddenly, she tripped, landing with a shock on the sandy ground. "Ow!" Matsuri tried to get up, but her right wrist flared in pain when she put her weight on it.

"Are you alright?" She looked up to see twp people running over to her. The man had on a beige and red jacket similar to Masumi's, and the woman a pink and beige one. Matsuri knew she'd seen them before recently, but couldn't recall where. They took her by an arm each and helped her stand.

"I... I think so, yeah. Except for my wrist."

The woman took it gently and examined it, eliciting a wince from Matsuri when she touched it. "It's just a sprain, she reported, "But you should have a doctor look at it. Did you see a man go by here a second ago?"

Matsuri noticed that the logos on their jackets also matched Masumi's, and then the memory hit her. The picture Takaoka-san showed her. They were friends of her brother's. Oh, what were their names?

"You're talking about my brother Masumi, right? I remember you now, from that team picture."

The two of them exchanged confused looks. "We used to work together," the man stated, his eyes widened as he stared at her, "We just got back from a long trip, and heard he was meeting Kaze no Shizuka here for some kind of hostage trade, so we came right away in case he needed backup. Where is he now?"

Matsuri pointed down the path. "He ran that way. Shizuka's planning to revive some 'Blade' person and he went to stop her."

They both gasped, intense worry crossing their features. Then the man turned to his companion. "Sakura," he instructed, "Direct her to the car. I'll go on ahead."

"Hai!" With that, 'Sakura' began to lead Matsuri in the direction while he took off.

"Wait!" Matsuri called after him. He rounded the bend without stopping. "Please don't let him get hurt..."

* * *

**Okay, one of the things I'm worried about is how I wrote Shizuka. Too evil? Too OOC in general? Dark Shadow was supposed to have SOME redeeming qualities (Yaiba aside).**

**The Eye of Ah Pukuh is a Precious I made up, with little to no basis in Mayan mythology. Ah Pukuh is a Mayan underworld deity I found when looking up such on Wikipedia. Xiabalba is the Mayan Underworld. That's pretty much all I know about the actual mythology. Ask me about Ancient Greek stuff, and I could write a book on it. And I know a bit of Japanese folklore because of a paper I wrote on it last fall, plus we're reading 'Kachikachi-Yama' and 'Kasa-Jizō' in Japanese class.**

**Lastly, review please! :)**


	4. Chapter 3: Shedding Light on the Past

**Okay, so here's the next chapter! There's a bit of action in the beginning, but most of it is talk, mainly about Masumi's past. Aside from Yaiba attacking when he was a kid and anything during Boukenger, it's something that I came up with. An honestly, the reason this chapter is so long is because I added quite a few more details.**

**I'm also looking for a Beta for some of my other Sentai fics, so just review or PM me if you're interested; I'm talking about any of the fics that are labelled as 'being updated when the inspiration hits' on my profile. Any of the fics with more detailed information are still in the draft stages, though 'Wizards and Mahōtsukai' is already at about 60 pages, and I'm not even halfway through!**

**Also, I'm putting up some story concepts up for adoption, and they can be viewed at the top of my profile. One of them is a Boukenger crossover with Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., starring Sōta! The others are also Sentai crossovers, though I doubt that some of them are going to stay as is, simply because of the events of recent episodes of Kamen Rider Gaim and Kyoryuger, particularly the deaths of some characters.**

**Lastly, feel free to check out some of my other Sentai fics!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Boukenger or any of its characters**

**Word Count: 4, 947!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Shedding Light on the Past

Sakura stared at the woman who just called Masumi her brother. Who was she? The Deep Adventurer moved her hand nearer her ScopeShot, just in case. "Who are you?" she asked sharply, "How are you related to Masumi?"

The woman looked up, and Sakura was shocked to notice that her facial features bore a stunning resemblance to those of her old teammate. "May name is Saitō Matsuri. I'm Masumi's twin sister. I know he never would've mentioned me to you, because until a couple hours ago, he didn't know I existed."

Sakura blinked, taken aback. "His sister..."

Saitō continued. "He was abducted when we were toddlers, by the men who murdered our father. I was raised by our aunt, and it wasn't until that Kaze no Shizuka girl tried to take our father's treasure that I found out that he was alive. Takaoka-san came to collect the chest and showed me a picture of your team, and I-"

A loud explosion cut off any further conversation. "Satoru-san!" Sakura gasped, "Masumi!" She pushed Saitō in the direction they'd come from, along the path towards where she and Satoru-san had parked their rental car. "Our car is just on the other side of that hill," she instructed, "Wait there. I need to help the others."

She ran after Satoru-san, glancing back over her shoulder for just a second to be sure that Saitō was running to the car. She was, and Sakura focused herself on the task at hand.

She knew she'd arrived at the right place when she saw BoukenRed duelling one-on-one with Shizuka. Without hesitating, she transformed and pulled out her SurviBlaster and fired at the kunoichi, who unfortunately saw the shots coming and dodged them all.

Shizuka pouted. "Mou! I guess we'd better act before the rest of you show up. Bakudangami!" she shouted to a Tsukumogami clashing with Black further down the hill, stymying the Fast Adventurer's attacks by hurling small, explosive projectiles at him, "It's time!"

The monster nodded to her once and pulled out a small blue spherical object with a short wick sticking out of it. A bomb. He lit the wick while still avoiding blows from the Radial Hammer.

"Black!" BoukenPink shouted, realising that he was too close, "Get out of there!"

But he didn't. Instead, he dropped his personal weapon and tried to grab the bomb out of the monster's hand. "We can't let him destroy himself!" he cried, "Not here!" The Tsukumogami shoved her back a few feet.

And then the bomb went off.

BoukenPink was knocked over by the force of the blast, hitting the side of the grassy slope. Slowly, she pushed herself up on her elbows, looking around. There was a black blast mark where the monster had been standing. Red and Shizuka were near her, slowly getting up as well. But Masumi, who was lying between them and the blast point, had lost his transformation and wasn't moving.

"It's done!" Shizuka declared, struggling to her feet and dashing over to where the black mark was. She dropped her knees and dug into the dirt, quickly unearthing a fist-sized black stone. "Return from the grave, Yami no Yaiba, and serve your mistress!"

Pink gasped as a green light glowed from the runes on the stone and the pit it had been in. Shadowy vapours began to float out of the hole, twisting and forming together into a tall, vaguely humanoid-shaped cloud. Then the mass of shadows began to ripple, changing and moulding into a specific, solid, defined form.

When the figure was finalised, the remaining wisps of vapour blew away, as if dispersed by a sudden strong wind. There stood Yami no Yaiba, in perfect condition despite Masumi having completely annihilated him over two years ago. The only difference was that the yellow visor was now glowing with the same green light as the stone.

Shizuka clapped her hands excitedly. "Alright, now go kill those three Boukengers!"

Sakura fully expected Yaiba to brush her off and ignore her. After all, he'd broken off from and betrayed Dark Shadow; and even before that, he would never have taken orders from _Shizuka_. But he only bowed his head to her. "Yes, Shizuka-sama," he said, and stalked over to where Masumi was lying, possibly unconscious and definitely vulnerable.

"No!" The other two Boukengers got up, determined to protect their own. Their SurviBlades stopped his sword before it could hit and pushed it away. Yaiba barely hesitated, continuing his slashes with such ferocity that BoukenPink feared that it would be only a matter of seconds before he got a hit in.

A shout came from behind them, and she risked a glance to see Saitō Matsuri tackling Shizuka from behind. She must have turned around after hearing the explosion. The stone flew out of the ninja's hand, and landed a few feet away. Yaiba froze in mid-slash.

Shizuka shoved the other woman off and made to grab the stone, but BoukenRed switched to his SurviBlaster and shot it with incredible accuracy. The stone shattered to pieces, and the green glow faded from the slits in Yaiba's blue mask, turning yellow again.

Before any of them could react, the resurrected ninja slashed BoukenRed and BoukenPink across their fronts with a single powerful stroke, sending them crumpling to the ground as their AccelSuits dematerialised.

Yaiba then turned towards Shizuka. "You dared to give me orders," he stated coldly, "I will not forgive you for that." Shizuka paled and stumbled back before turning and ninja-streaking away. Sakura hoped Yaiba would go after her, but instead he turned his focus onto Matsuri, who seemed to be frozen with fear, still splayed on the ground. "I know your face from somewhere," Yaiba said, a hint of curiosity colouring his tone.

That got her moving. She scrambled back away from him, looking terrified.

"Yaiba..." Masumi had apparently regained consciousness, and was glaring at his revived nemesis while staggering to his feet. "Don't you dare touch my sister.," he growled, getting to his feet, "This is between you and me." He was chalk-white pale and had a bleeding gash on his forehead, but he got up and staggered forward.

"Masumi, don't!" Sakura warned him. She tried to get up, but a sharp flash of pain brought her back down.

He ignored her, of course. Instead, he moved over to Matsuri and helped her up.

"Your sister?" Yaiba questioned, and Sakura saw a wince cross Masumi's face as he most likely realised that revealing their relation probably hadn't been the smartest thing. "I wonder if she has the same potential as you."

"Like hell she does!" Masumi spat. Matsuri looked between him and Yaiba, obviously confused. "I said leave her out of this!"

"Masumi," Satoru-san insisted, also attempting to rise, "You can't fight him like this. Not now, while you're injured."

"I'll be fine," Masumi argued, but Sakura could see the blood staining the lighter fabric of his jacket from a rip in the right side. He must have been caught by shrapnel.

Before they could argue further, Yaiba's mask split open and he shouted: "1000 PAPER CRANE BLIZZRD!"

Matsuri froze again as the deadly, colourful projectiles sped towards her, but Masumi moved almost immediately, knowing exactly how dangerous they were. He jumped in front of his sister, shielding her, and grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her down. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite quick enough.

"MASUMI!" Sakura screamed, Satoru-san echoing her, both watching in horror as some of the shots managed to hit his upper back as he dropped. They could hear him yelling in pain over Matsuri's own terrified yells.

When it ended, the siblings were both sprawled on the ground. Matsuri had been protected from harm, but Masumi now had more bloody wounds to contend with. Sakura and Satoru-san began to crawl towards them - the best they could do at the moment with their own injuries - but Yaiba got there first. He grabbed them each by the upper arms and lifted them up. Matsuri screamed and struggled, while Masumi turned his horrified, agony-filled gaze to his friends.

"You two may both be of use to me," Yaiba stated. Then he, like Kaze no Shizuka, ninja-streaked away, leaving a devastated Satoru-san and Sakura behind.

* * *

Masumi hit the cold stone floor hard. The wounds on his back and the deep gash on his right side flared in agony every time he attempted to move, and his head was pounding. He could hear Matsuri's quick, panicked breathing next to him and Yaiba's calm footsteps as he strode away from them.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and glanced around, trying to move his head as little as possible. They were in a cave, the only light coming from the wide entrance about three metres away. Yaiba had placed himself between the twins and the escape route, drawing his sword. "So good to be back among the living," he said, "How long has it been, Inō Masumi, since our last battle?"

Masumi could feel his sister's eyes on him. He glared at Yaiba. "Two years. It's been two years since I sent you to Hell. But it won't be long until I send you back."

"Hmph. You're in no condition to even try. The only reason I haven't already killed you is because I want you to suffer first." He pointed his weapon at Matsuri. "How much of your past does this sister of yours know? Haven't you told her about your dark power, and how you so easily gave in to it once and nearly destroyed the world as you know it?"

Masumi looked over at her. She was staring at him, and even though he'd only just met her, he could see the horror masked in her expression. Must be a twin thing.

"I see you haven't," Yaiba continued, "Perhaps you need some time to talk." He made a strange gesture with his hand and muttered something, and a wall of dark energy flared up between him and his captives, completely blocking their way out, then stalked away.

The two of them sat in silence for a while. Masumi wondered how he could possibly explain his checkered past to a woman who'd grown up with a loving family instead of enduring a harsh life on the streets. He'd done a quick background check before leaving SGS, simply because he'd been dying of curiosity about who his newly-discovered twin sister was.

Matsuri spoke first. "Are you okay to move?" she asked hesitantly, "You took a lot of hits." She carefully peeled the side of his jacket away to look at the wound on his side. The blood had soaked his black shirt underneath, making it slightly stuck to his skin as she pulled that away as well. Matsuri paused when he hissed in pain. The sand that had gotten in it only made it worse. "Sorry." She looked pale in the dim light.

"If you're going to be sick, it's okay," Masumi told her, though truthfully he felt a bit nauseous himself.

"No. No, I'm fine. I'm actually a nursing student, and I've worked at a hospital as an intern, so I've seen stuff like this - worse, even. Now I need you to sit up so I can look at your back."

Masumi sat up with no small difficulty - until then, he'd still been lying on his side, as he'd been when they arrived. Matsuri had to help him pull his right arm out of his jacket sleeve to expose his other injuries. After pulling the back of his shirt away to look at them, she sighed and returned to the first, draping his jacket back over his shoulder. "This one seems to have done the most damage. Just keep that jacket on, the last thing you need is to go into shock from the blood loss." She bit her lip, looking around, then asked him: "Do you have a knife, or something sharp?"

He nodded and shakily pulled his switchblade out of his back pocket. Even after joining SGS and getting access to the Boukenger system, he still felt safer carrying it around. He'd had it since he was a kid, even before Yaiba had attacked the camp, and had saved his life more than once. Matsuri took it and cut off the right sleeve of her dark green sweater at the elbow. She was a bit awkward in handling the knife, using her left hand, and Masumi noticed that her right wrist was slightly swollen. She folded it up into a bundle, and pressed it up against the gash. Masumi gasped in pain again before he could stop himself. "Sorry, but we need to stop the bleeding."

"I know, I know." Masumi took a deep breath. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"Not really. I mean, I tripped on the path by the cliff and sprained my wrist, but nothing life-threatening. Thanks in no small part to you." She seemed to be hesitating, wondering about something. "So... what's your history with that guy, anyway? What was he talking about?"

Masumi couldn't look at her, out of shame. He thought quietly on how to go about telling her, and figured that it would be best to start at the beginning. "I was raised by a group of treasure hunters, most likely the same ones who killed our father. One of them had a daughter, Tomoko, who was about twelve years older than me. She was in charge of raising me, even if she was a little young for it, and she gave me my surname, Inō. She later told me that my given name was my real one, as far as she knew, because when the men came back to their hideout with me, that's what they said it was. She gave me a birthday, too. I'm guessing we _weren't_ actually born on June 29th?"

She shook here head. "September 25th. 1987."

"Well, at least she got the year right. That was the day I was handed over to her. She figured I appeared to be about two years old, so that would be treated as my second birthday. She was the only one who was nice to me, really. The two of us were close, like siblings. But she was tough on me, too; she never sheltered me from the knowledge of all the bad things in the world. It was only so that I would be able to not only handle it, but survive it. We were mostly in charge of taking care of the campsite - our group tended to avoid towns, and rarely slept in motels - and I was sometime used to get into small places in order to fetch whatever they were after. Sometimes it was a genuine find, but occasionally the men liked to steal from others, especially if they thought they could get a good price for it. Then Tomoko-neechan disappeared one day when I was eight. None of the others would tell me what had happened to her, or where she was. I still stuck around, out of some blind hope that that I'd find out eventually, plus it's not like I had a whole load of choices." He gave a small, dark half-chuckle. "I probably should've gone to the police or someone the next time we were in town, they would've made sure I was properly taken care of, somewhere safe. Someplace where I wouldn't be smacked around for every little offence. But they'd drilled into me that cops were bad news, and I'll admit to still having issues about them.

"Then Yaiba came, a few years later. We'd just uncovered a huge treasure cache, and he announced that he was going to take it all. We didn't stand a chance. I only survived because I ducked behind the nearest guy and used his body as a shield."

He forced himself to look at her expression, something he'd been avoiding since starting his story, and was prepared to see shock or disgust. But instead, there was only sympathy. Then again, he hadn't even gotten to the worst part yet. "He later told me several years later that he only spared me afterwards because I apparently had a lot of darkness in my heart, and he wanted to see how I would turn out. Probably hoped I would be an ally or apprentice of his, someday.

"After he left, I ran to the nearest town for help. It was the only time that I willingly went to the police. They never found the killer, of course, and didn't believe my description of a man in bright blue armour who could summon rainbow-coloured paper cranes of death. Some thought I had imagined a monster as a way of dealing with the trauma, or something, and a couple were convinced that I was flat-out lying. Either way, I was put into a foster home, but it was honestly worse than what I'd had to deal with before. I ran away after about three weeks. After that, I kind of grew up on the streets, eventually becoming a treasure hunter. I still remembered all the tricks I'd learned from my old caretakers, and when money was scant I found shelters, and sometimes worked the occasional odd job for food or money. I remember there was this old restaurant owner in this small town I would visit, he was always exchanging food for labour, so I always dropped by to see him whenever I was around. I started to make a name for myself amongst treasure hunters, and while the group that raised me tended to sell their finds on the black market, I often took mine to museums or legitimate dealers. The last thing I wanted was to tangle with the cops, and getting involved with the wrong people would make that harder. Though there were a couple times where I couldn't find food or money, and I had to resort to stealing.

"Then, five and a half years ago, when I was sixteen - well, it was early September, so I guess I would've actually still been fifteen - I discovered a girl my age lying unconscious in a cave. She couldn't remember how she'd gotten there, or who she was - not even her name. So I came up with one for her: Mamiya Natsuki." Masumi fondly remembered how her eyes had lit up when he'd declared her new name. He'd even made the day they met, September 11th, 2003, her 'birthday', just as Tomoko-neechan had done for him.

"Natsuki?" Matsuri murmured, speaking for the first time since he'd started, "I think Takaoka-san mentioned that name... Oh, right! He was showing me and my - _our_ cousin Nobuaki that picture of your team. She's the girl in yellow, and that woman from before was the one in pink!"

Masumi smiled. "Nishihori Sakura. Two years after I found Natsuki, we were approached by her, Akashi, and Sōta - they're BoukenRed and Blue - and they recruited us onto their team." Seeing the puzzled look on her face, he explained further: "SGS is a company that deals with Precious, items with powers that can easily be dangerous in the wrong hands, or anyone's, in some cases. We Boukengers are the task force that tracks them down once the general location is discovered. And since there are usually groups that want to use the Precious for not-so-nice purposes, like Dark Shadow, we're also equipped to fight them and secure the Precious. Anyway, shortly Natsuki and I joined, I ran into Yaiba again. Several times, actually. He worked for Dark Shadow. He kept telling me to give in to the darkness, but I mostly ignored him for months."

He took a deep breath. This was the worst part. Matsuri seemed to sense his hesitation, and gently put her hand on his.

"One day, we were going after a Precious known as the Three-Headed Dragon of Darkness. I was the first to reach it, and when I picked it up..." He shuddered involuntarily. "It hurt like hell at first, like I'd been electrocuted, and I couldn't breathe for a couple seconds. But then that'd stopped, and it felt strangely... good. I couldn't explain it, still can't, but I felt stronger. Then Yaiba arrived, and he said the Dragon had taken a liking to me. I didn't understand what he meant until another enemy, Ryuuoun, reached us and tried to take it from me. I knocked him a dozen feet back, at least, with just one punch. But as soon as Yaiba managed to get it away from me, all that power was gone." He stared down at his shoes. "I'd always wanted to surpass Akashi. He was the legendary 'Immortal Fang', the number-one treasure hunter in Japan, and always better at everything I tried, and I couldn't get over that. I kept thinking that if I could get the Three-Headed Dragon of Darkness back, I could finally beat him. The others still insist that it was just the Dragon's powers messing with my head, that it wasn't my fault I wasn't thinking clearly. But I was still willing to give in to the darkness for some petty, one-sided rivalry. So when Yaiba realised he needed my power to fulfil his plan of engulfing the world in darkness, and contacted me to meet him on that same bluff we were just at... I went. No questions asked, no alerting the rest of the team."

He looked back over at Matsuri. Her expression was now closed, but she nodded, encouraging him to continue.

"Akashi followed me... I attacked him. Then I allowed Yaiba to use my power to summon a mass of pure darkness that would cover the world. I didn't know at the time that that was what he was doing; I just wanted the power I got from the Dragon, and didn't really care about anything else. Until I turned around and saw all my friends lying there, unconscious. They'd tried to interfere, and Yaiba had used a small ffraction of that power to strike them down, all without me even noticing. So I fought him and woke them up. Then they destroyed the darkness while I finally managed to finish off Yaiba. But I was so horrified by what I'd done that I quit the team, just left them behind. I found Natsuki after our base had been attacked, and Akashi was supposedly killed. She convinced me to come back, and we beat our final enemy, all six of us - Akashi was alive and well, and Eiji had since joined us. Natsuki and I started dating less than a month later, and we got married February before last." He smiled, remembering how he'd lifted her veil and thought at that very moment that she was the most beautiful thing in the universe.

Matsuri nodded. "Yes, you mentioned earlier that you were now married."

"Not just that. We'll be having a son in a month. We haven't decided on a name yet, but the last ultrasound was just two days ago, and it confirmed that it's a boy. Natsuki actually suggested Satoru, but Akashi was adamant that he didn't want any kid named after him until he was dead. He and Sakura-neesan transferred to SGS's new space exploration department about six months after we defeated our last enemy, and I was named team leader. I've held that position for nearly two years now."

She grinned fully this time and carefully hugged him. "If Yaiba wanted you to tell me your story to make me hate you, he was sorely mistaken," she whispered, "Even with your past mistakes, you've made up for them by being who you are now."

Masumi felt a huge wave of relief. "Thank you. Now how are we going to get out of here?"

* * *

Matsuri walked up to the transparent wall of energy blocking their way out. It didn't actually look very substantial. Maybe she could shove her way through. The fact that Yami no Yaiba was very liable to kill her when he returned ran through her mind, but she was honestly more worried about Masumi and his family. Her brother had a wife and a son on the way; they needed him, and Matsuri would be damned if she was going to just stand by and let that be destroyed.

She reached out to touch the wall, to see how strong it really was, but Masumi's cry stopped her. "Don't touch it!" He slowly got halfway to his feet, swaying slightly while still pressing the blood-soaked cloth to his side. "It might not look that strong, but I've learned the hard way not to underestimate Yaiba." He held up a random rock he'd picked up off the ground and lightly tossed it at the wall. Matsuri gasped as sparks flew, and the rock bounced back, smoking. "That was almost you."

Matsuri shuddered. "So then, what are we supposed to do?! He could be back any minute!" She felt herself starting to panic, her breaths coming in short gasps.

Her brother slid back down the wall he'd been leaning against. Matsuri bit her lip. His face was pale, and sometimes his eyes lost focus, but his expression remained calm. She didn't know how he could manage it in their situation. She could only put up a brave front for so long, like when Bakudangami had taken her hostage. She had her limits, and had reached them when Yaiba had first turned his gaze on her. "The others will find us. Yaiba didn't take my Accellular, so they can track us with it. We just have to wait until they get here, and hope Yaiba doesn't come back first."

She sat down next to him and checked the injury on his side after taking a quick look at his back again. Those were relatively shallow, thankfully, and while his flesh was burned around the edges, that had actually cauterised the wounds a bit, so they weren't bleeding as much as they would have otherwise. The other one, however, was still bleeding - slowly, but he was still losing blood by the minute. On top of that, what little she could see of his back, arm, and stomach were heavily bruised. She dearly hoped his team would get there soon. His eyes were drifting shut now and again. She had to keep him awake, so she said the first thing that popped into her head.

"I think I had a dream about him, once."

He looked up at her, surprised. "What?"

"Ever since I - we - were about ten, I'd sometimes have nightmares about a yellow-eyed figure standing while all those coloured projectiles shot at me. It was just like that paper-crane attack thing earlier." She smiled despite the terror she always associated with that dream. "I was terrified of it, but it was dreams like that that helped me hang on to the belief that you were still alive out there. I mean, you've heard about how people always say that twins have a weird connectin like that, sharing dreams and stuff like that. And since I'd never experienced anything that would make me have those dreams, they had to be yours, therefore you had to be alive."

"Not for long." Matsuri jumped as Yami no Yaiba stepped out of the shadows. How long had he been there? Had he been listening to everything they said? Her breath caught in her throat as she remembered that Masumi had mentioned their only hope for rescue to come only a minute earlier.

Despite his injuries, Masumi got up and put himself between the other two. "What do you want, Yaiba?" he spat, albeit weakly, "You never do anything without some kind of ulterior motive."

Yaiba simply looked around him at Matsuri, who got to her feet as well, if only to catch him when his newfound strength ran out. "If your darkness won't be offered for my new endeavour, perhaps hers will."

"Like hell! She hasn't had to go through what I have; she doesn't have any darkness within her! I've said it twice already, leave her out of this."

The dark ninja gave a sinister chuckle. "Just because it hasn't been developed like yours doesn't mean it isn't there. That kind of power comes naturally to you, whether you want it or not. I tapped into your power once before, and I can do it to hers as well, whether she gives her consent or not. I am capable of far more than I demonstrated to Dark Shadow or to you, in my previous life." The transparent barrier dispersed with a wave of his hand, and he took a step towards him.

* * *

**Like I said, lengthy chapter. The bit about Masumi's birthday came to me as I was thinking about how he would've grown up, and then I realised that if he'd been kidnapped by virtual strangers, who only knew his name because his dying father called out to him back in the prologue, how could we be certain that he knew his actual birthday?**

**As for Tomoko-chan, I'm not quite sure what to do with her. A few ideas have been bouncing around my head of writing another fic that features Masumi finding out her fate, but they're just ideas, and if I were to make something out of them, it wouldn't be out for another couple of years. The downside of coming up with more and more complex stories is that they take a lot longer to write, and anyone viewing my profile can see that I already have quite the waiting list.**

**So... Next week! Things start really heating up, and we manage to get some action. Plus I'm going to put Masumi through the wringer a bit more because I'm evil and I love to do it to my favourite characters.**

**Lastly, review, people! Seriously, I want to know what you guys think of all this, and I am of the belief that 'no news is good news' is a load of crap.**


	5. Chapter 4: Getting Desperate

**Aaaand here's the newest chapter! It's acoming a bit late in the day, I know, but the website was acting up last night when I was working on typing this up, and I lost EVERYTHING! So I had to start all over.**

**Erebus' Orb is another Precious I've made up, and is featured in this chapter and the next. There's not much left to this story, just one more chapter after this, and then the epilogue. It's hard to believe that I started working on this, like, 5 years ago, and I'm just putting it up now. I had been planning in the summer of 2011 to have it up that October, but I still didn't have the first draft finished. I still have a lot of fics in many different categories on hold before I can get to cranking out new ideas.**

**DISLAIMER: Boukenger and its characters do not belong to me.**

**WORD COUNT: 3,042**

* * *

Chapter 4: Getting Desperate

Masumi backed up, fully shielding his sister. Matsuri's breathing was quick and shallow; she was starting to panic. "I'm not going to let you touch her." He winced internally as he stumbled slightly. The blood loss was really getting to him.

"You can't even stand up straight," Yaiba observed, "let alone fight me. Don't worry, I'll end your life soon enough. But first..." He drew his sword and swung it.

The Fast Adventurer grabbed the blade just above the hilt, trying to push the sword away. His hands protested as the sharp edge cut into them, as the force of the swing pushed him to the side, and his head hit the wall of the tunnel with a _crack_.

Black spots danced in front of his eyes as he watched Yaiba grab his sister by the arm and begin chanting in some other language. Matsuri struggled and screamed at first, but then stopped and stiffened, her eyes riveted onto Yaiba's mask.

"N... No..." Masumi tried to get up, but his arms and legs gave out on him, and the last image he saw was that of his sister staring blankly at him.

Then all went dark.

* * *

_24 hours later:_

Yami no Yaiba watched in great satisfaction as the young woman slowly draped the chain around her neck. He'd heard of the legend of Erebus' Orb while tracking down the Three-Headed Dragon of Darkness, and had managed to narrow down its general location, saving it as a backup plan. His plans had been unexpectedly delayed when Inō Masumi had killed him, but now that he'd returned from the dead, he now had an even more unexpected opportunity to carry them out.

Erebus' Orb had been named after the Ancient Greek personification of darkness, despite having no real connection to him. It had come to Japan many centuries ago, and its actual origins were still unknown. It had the power to engulf the world in darkness by draining all the light out of whoever wore its chain. Yaiba had tried to obtain it himself, after leaving Inō and his sister in a nearby cave, but once he'd found its actual location, he'd discovered, once again, that only someone with a natural affinity for dark energies could pass through the wards guarding it. As powerful as Yaiba's darkness was, it had been obtained by hard work and the use of dark objects, texts, and rituals over many years. Inō Masumi, on the other hand, held that power naturally, a rare gift, but he'd also learned how to keep it contained, locked away, never to be used. Yaiba hated him for it. The man had been born with power that Yaiba could never hope to achieve, and he refused to use it, or, in the beginning, even acknowledge it.

This woman, his apparent sister, had that power as well. He saw it when he put her under his thrall. Darkness in humans, no matter how minute the amount, tended to manifest itself in the form of anger and ambition, something that Inō had in plenty, due to his life experiences. But hers was buried under the sickeningly sweet love she had for her family, and when it came out, it was a tendency to lash out at those who harmed her loved ones, and to hold a grudge against them. This was why those who walked the path of darkness made temporary allies, but not friends: it suppressed their power. But soon it would be drawn out, as soon as the Orb took in all her loyalty and compassion. His hypnosis spell would keep her under his control until he no longer needed her, and then he would kill her - because with her light gone, she would doubtlessly try to take her revenge on him when she was freed from his thrall, and her death would torture Inō even further on top of what Yaiba already had planned.

Once that was done, who should he target next? Certainly the other Boukengers would be next, but which to start with? Yaiba knew the Blue one, who was always flirting with Shizuka, had a shady past, and shame and self-hatred were the next common manifestations of darkness. Or perhaps BoukenSilver, the man sworn to battle the demons whose blood ran through his own veins. Decisions, decisions...

Either way, Inō Masumi would be the last of the six to fall. After all, Yaiba wasn't about to let the man get away with killing him. But first, he'd have to watch as everyone he cared about succumbed, one by one, to the darkness he hated and feared so much.

* * *

"He'll be okay." The achingly familiar voice drifted through the blackness. Masumi slowly became aware of the ache in his body, particularly in his side and in his head. He tried to move, but his entire body was so heavy. Even his eyelids felt like they had lead weights on top of them. He tried to recall how he'd come to be in this situation, but everything came up blank. So instead, he kept listening.

"Why did Yaiba leave him, though?" That was Sōta's voice. Why on earth was he talking about Yaiba? Yaiba was dead. "He could've easily killed Masumi, but he just left him there, alive. No other injuries you guys didn't report except for some bad cuts on his hands and the head injury."

"And his sister?" Sister? He didn't have a sister. Were they even talking about him?

"As far as we know, she's still alive," another startlingly familiar voice stated, and this time his mind was clear enough to recognise it. When did Akashi get back? Or was he just imagining things? "But she's still in Yaiba's clutches, and he'll probably dispose of her as soon as he gets whatever he needs from her."

Masumi remembered everything, now. Shizuka, the Eye, Yaiba, Matsuri. Oh God, Matsuri! He'd let that dark bastard get to her! With tremendous effort, he wrenched his eyes open. For the first couple of seconds, everything was a blur of light and colour, then the images cleared and he could see his wife's anxious face peering down at him. "Masumi!" she gasped. In an instant, the voices around him went from hushed whispers to rather loud inquiries as to how he was feeling. Sōta was the first to come into view, half-grinning at him in relief.

"About time you woke up," he stated, "We were starting to get worried."

"Natsuki was already worried!" she declared, grabbing his hand, "How are you feeling?"

Masumi looked up at her. Dried tear tracts lined her cheeks, her pigtails were disheveled, her yellow maternity sweater wrinkled, and her red-rimmed eyes sporting dark bags underneath. Guilt hit him as he realised that it was all his fault. He'd caused her that stress and worry, and so close to her due date, too.

"Sore," he replied. His throat felt as dry as a desert, and his voice came out horse and raspy. "Where's Matsuri? Is she okay?" He'd heard them say that she was still missing, but he didn't want to believe it.

Sōta glanced over at someone out of Masumi's line of sight. Masumi didn't like the look on his face. "When we finally got to your location," his sub-chief said slowly, "All we found was you. No trace of Yaiba or Matsuri. I'm sorry, but... it looks like he still has her."

Masumi felt his chest constrict. He'd failed to save her. His own twin sister.

Natsuki squeezed his hand. "Don't blame yourself," she insisted, "Natsuki knows that you are, but please don't."

We failed to keep Yaiba from taking you two in the first place," Akashi's voice added, "So don't lay it all on yourself." Masumi turned his head gingerly to his right, seeing the man in question leaning against the wall of the SGS infirmary with Sakura-neesan standing behind him.

"When'd you guys get back, anyway?" he asked, coughing as the air raked through his dry throat. Sōta caught on and got a plastic cup of water, handed it to Natsuki, and started helping Masumi sit upright. Masumi winced as pain flared up from his wounded side.

We landed just before you left headquarters, actually," Sakura-neesan replied, "We'd called ahead to let everyone know, and Sōta told us where you'd gone. So we drove to your location instead, and you know the rest from there."

Masumi drank the entire cup of water before asking his next question. "How long have I been out?"

"About 36 hours. That was around when we found you, about one hour after Yami no Yaiba took you both."

Thirty-six hours. Matsuri had been a captive of Yaiba's for a day and a half, and counting. What was he doing to her?

Well, whatever was happening to her, he was going to put a stop to it or die trying.

* * *

It was only a few hours after Masumi woke up that the alarms went off, alerting them to an attack in downtown Tokyo. When everyone (save Masumi) gathered in the main room, footage showed Yami no Yaiba calmly walking down the street, slicing random cars and streetlights and such while civilians screamed and ran for their lives.

What shocked everyone was the figure following sedately behind him. Her long hair was messed up and falling out of her ponytail, her dark green sweater and black pencil skirt were torn and smudged with dirt, and her eyes were completely blank. Around her neck hung a black orb pendant glowing a deep purple.

"That's her!" Eiji gasped, "That's Saitō Matsuri!"

"Why isn't she trying to get away from Yaiba?" Sakura wondered.

Satoru took a closer look at the screen. "I don't remember her wearing that pendant. Sakura? Eiji?"

Both shook their heads. "No," Eiji said seriously, "I've never seen that before. Could it be what's controlling her?"

"It has to be." Satoru looked over at them all. "Technically, Sōta's incharge while Masumi's out of commission, so-"

Sōta held his hand up. "You were Chief first. If Masumi were here, he'd put you in charge until he's back on his feet." Eiji and the girls nodded in agreement. "It's your call."

"Alright then. We're heading down there. Stop Yaiba at all costs and see if we can get that necklace off of Matsuri. Natsuki, let us know if anything changes with Masumi." At her nod, he faced the others and snapped his fingers. "Attack!"

* * *

Masumi listened with his back against the wall. His wounds flared in protest, but he ignored them. The others were talking about Matsuri and some sort of pendant. His hatred for Yaiba burned even hotter when he thought of his sister under his control. His sister, who, just a couple days ago, had only needed to worry about helping to take care of their cousins and studying for her nursing school exams. Normal stuff. Not revived evil ninja warriors of darkness trying to use her to take over the world.

The idea of even having a twin sister was still weird. Since joining SGS, he'd looked up to Sakura-neesan as his older sister figure. She'd reminded him of Tomoko-neechan, the girl who'd brought him up. Serious and calculating, but with genuine heart hidden underneath, and rather scary when she was angry.

But Matsuri... this was different. They were supposed to have grown up together. Then he'd gotten kidnapped twenty years ago, and they were just meeting now by pure chance. He'd been given an opportunity to finally have her in his life, and it was being taken away.

Injured or not, Masumi would be damned if he was going to just lie down and let that happen. He limped back into the infirmary and grabbed his Accellular and jacket. Part of him reflected that it hadn't been the smartest idea to leave these there when they wanted him to stay in bed.

He left a note on his pillow, telling Natsuki he loved her while doing his best to not sound like it was goodbye. That might wind up being the case, but he didn't want his wife to worry any more than necessary. He hated himself for doing this to her and their son.

Then Masumi crept out and into the main area. The rest of the team had already taken off, and from the sound of things, Natsuki was busying herself in the kitchen. Probably trying to take his mind off the situation with a cheerful-looking snack. Masumi's heart broke at what he was doing to her, and his stomach grumbled at the reminder that he hadn't eaten in nearly two days, but he ignored it. He was getting his sister back.

* * *

Downtown Tokyo was an absolute mess. Fires erupted from trashed cars, power lines lay sparking on the roads, and general chaos ensued as terrified civilians fled from the one-man wave of destruction. Nobody wanted to get in his way, though the braver few did try to tackle his silent 'accomplice'. That had resulted in revealing an aspect of Erebus' Orb that even Yaiba hadn't known about.

When someone touched the wearer of the Orb, it flashed purple and engulfed them in a dark, smoky violet mist that drained their own light. Some collapsed to the ground in despair, while a couple actually went berserk, going on a furious rampage and adding to the destruction, mayhem, and hysteria.

This was the scene that laid before the four Boukengers when they arrived.

"Yami no Yaiba!" BoukenRed yelled.

The dark ninja stopped and regarded them coolly. "Only four? I take it that Inō Masumi will not be joining us. Just as well; I was saving him for last. But where is BoukenYellow? Did she get herself killed in the years I've been gone?" They all glared at him (but said nothing - like hell they were going to tell him about the baby!), which he seemed to notice despite their helmets covering their faces. "I suppose not. I'll deal with her later, and just content myself with you four for now." He raised his sword in challenge.

The Boukengers raised their own weapons. "Remember," BoukenRed said to his comrades softly, "We need to get that necklace off Matsuri. Blue, Silver, can you do that?" He got two silent nods from them. "Pink and I will draw Yaiba away."

With that, he and BoukenPink dashed forward, Surviblades brandished out in front of them, while their teammates took off at a wider angle, to try and curcle around the ninja warrior. Yaiba didn't even spare those two a glance, focusing on his own attackers instead.

BoukenBlue got to her first. "Saitō-san!" he called, getting no response whatsoever. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. As the last person to try had done so before he and the others had arrived on scene, they had no idea what the pendant could do.

As soon as his hand made contact, a flash of violet light came from the orb, followed by the dark mist that sprang out and cloaked him entirely as he gasped in surprise. When the cloud cleared, sucked back into its source, Sōta was left standing with a stricken expression, his AccelSuit gone. He stood there, swaying, for a second, before dropping to his knees

"Sōta!" Silver called, skirting around Matsuri - who simply remained standing where she was - and pulling him away. "Hey! What are you doing?!"

Sōta just stared forward, not even seeming to see or hear his friend. His lips were constantly moving, ad Eiji had to strain to make out the words.

"I killed them. I got them all killed. My fault. My fault." He paid no mind to what was going on around him, continuing to quietly ramble more along that line.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, Masumi had arrived just in time to witness the whole thing from behind the corner of a building. He watched as Sōta went down, and BoukenSilver tried fruitlessly to snap him out of his semi-catatonic state. This complicated his plans - not that his planning had gotten beyond 'get there and save Matsuri'.

His fingers clenched painfully around his Accellular when he saw the outright devastated expressn on his sub-chief's face. He knew it from the one time he'd caught Sōta right after a nightmare about his past. It wasn't something one could just forget. Whatever was going on with that orb, it had clearly brought him back to all that (even if Masumi still didn't know what 'all that' was).

Promising himself that he would hit Yaiba that much harder for that, Masumi turned his focus back onto his sister. Somehow, he had to figure out how to get that pendant off her without touching the damned thing himself.

"Saitō-san!" BoukenSilver had given up on reaching Sōta and had approached Matsuri, hands held out towards her, but making sure not to actually touch her. "Can you hear me? You have to stop this!" Matsuri didn't respond at all.

Masumi chewed his lip, wondering what he should do. Part of him wanted to try and talk her back into reality, since she might be more likely to recognise him than she would the others, but that was a far stretch. It was too risky. He needed a plan before he ran out there.

Then his eyes caught sight of a piece of rebar sticking out of the detritus, and an idea formed in his head. If it worked, he would later be wondering how the hell it'd taken him that long to come up with such a simple solution. If it didn't... He was essentially screwed.

Taking a deep breath, Masumi pushed himself off from the wall. The stitches on his side throbbed, and his body wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest. He couldn't say that he wasn't tempted to just give in to that, but he shook it off. He could sleep when his sister, his _family_, was safe.

With that goal and his plan in mind, he raised his Accellular up to his shoulder.

"BOUKENGER! START UP!"

* * *

**Next week: Masumi employs his desperate plan to save Matsuri, and goes to settle things with Yaiba once and for all... Again.**

**Lastly, read and review!**


	6. Chapter 5: Final Clash

**Hey, sorry this is late! So this is the last full chapter, the epilogue will be going up next week. After that, I'm moving to some Digimon fics, and a few others, so 'Chichi no Tsumi', my Shinkenger fic, won't be up for a while. But my one-shots 'Uragirimono' (Gokaiger), 'Shinrai' (Kyoryuger), and 'Kokuhaku' (Hurricanger) will probably be popping up here and there. 'Shinrai' is almost done, so is 'Uragirimono'.**

**Review reply:**

**Malory Escarlante: Thanks for the review and the compliments! I love to hear from my readers.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Boukenger or any of its characters.**

**WORD COUNT: 3,328**

* * *

Chapter 5: Final Clash

BoukenSilver was at a loss for what to do. Saitō Matsuri wasn't even listening to him; he was willing to bet that she couldn't even hear him, thanks to Yami no Yaiba's machinations, or the orb, or both. And he couldn't do much other than plead with her, because he wasn't certain that he could touch her without ending up like Sōta.

Sōta was sitting on the ground several feet away, still lost in his own little nightmare world. Eiji was a little unsure of leaving him there, given that some of the civilians were for some reason going on destructive rampages of their own. But it wasn't even like he had any other choice. He had to figure out how to stop this chaos at the source.

The pendant. That had to be it. He was willing to bet that the civilians' state of catatonic shock, madness, or something in between, had been caused by touching Matsuri while she wore it, like Sōta had.

"Saitō-san!" he tried again, "Can you hear me? You have to stop this!" Of course, she didn't respond at all.

BoukenSilver was aware of the sounds of battle behind him, and he chanced a glance over his shoulder. Yaiba was clashing with BoukenRed, while BoukenPink was picking herself up off the ground a couple metres away. The fight was at a deadlock, with neither combatant having a clear advantage over the other.

"BOUKENGER! START UP!"

His attention was drawn away when Masumi's voice rang out from across the street. He looked around before spotting BoukenBlack racing out from behind a building. "Masumi!" he called, "What the hell are you doing?!"

Masumi didn't listen, instead summoning his Radial Hammer and charging straight for Matsuri.

* * *

Masumi knew he was taking a huge risk. There was a chance that his painfully simple solution wouldn't work, that he would also fall victim to the pendant's power. But it was the best - and only - thing he could come up with. Pain lanced through his body with every move, but the fact that he was currently transformed kept his strength up, though he knew that was only temporary.

Pulling out his Hammer, he could dimly hear Eiji's shouts, but his mind never registered the actual words. Probably something about the fact that he shouldn't be anywhere near there. He raced towards Matsuri, spinning the weapon in his hands with the knowledge that he would have to time this absolutely perfectly, so as to not harm her.

At the right moment, he gripped the staff and thrust it towards her, hooking the chain on the end of the handle and tossing it in the air. Masumi half-expected it to react in some way, but the jewel did nothing. Emboldened by this, he pulled out his SurviBlaster and fired.

The shot was dead-on, shattering the crystal orb and releasing another, smaller cloud of dark mist. From it, several balls of golden light emerged, hovering in the air for a second before flying around in all directions as the cloud dissipated into nothing. Masumi caught glimpse of one shooting down towards Matsuri, and another hitting Sōta in the chest and knocking him over, before something else tackled him from behind. "Agh!" He couldn't help but cry out in pain as his ribs collided with the pavement. He tried to elbow his attacker off of him, but a flash of silver made him stop. "Eiji, get the hell off me!"

The Dazzling Adventurer backed off a little. "What the hell were you thinking?!" he demanded.

He was interrupted as Matsuri dropped to her knees in front of them, gasping. "Oh my God," she whispered, her eyes quickly filling with tears, "What have I done?" She looked around at all the destruction, her face showing more and more distress by the second. Masumi forgot his pain and exhaustion, all but throwing Silver off and scrambling to his feet.

"Matsuri!" He grabbed her shoulders. "Are you okay?!" She looked startled at first, but relaxed a bit when she saw him.

"I..." Her mouth was open, but no words came out. Then her eyes widened, and she raised a shaky finger to point behind him.

Masumi turned around just in time to see the sword coming at his face. Reacting purely on instinct and adrenaline, he dove and rolled out of the way, pulling his sister with him. His SurviBlade was out less than a second later, meeting the next blow with a _clang_.

Yami no Yaiba glared down at him through his yellow visor. "Once again, Inō Masumi, you've ruined my plans. I should have finished you when we first met."

Masumi glared back. "Too late for that now," he spat, shoving the blade away and going in for a strike of his own, "I won't be defeated by you!"

Their blades clashed again and again, each of them fighting to get past the other's defence. Masumi could barely keep up as it was; the injuries he'd received over the past two days were hindering his movements and taking their toll on his endurance. His head was pounding, his side flared in agony every time his body twisted to avoid a blow, and he was pretty certain that the gashes on his palm had re-opened and were bleeding inside his gloves. Flashes of colour that he glimpsed behind Yaiba told him that his teammates were regrouping.

That was when Yaiba got a hit in. The dark ninja's blade slashed around his chest, causing Masumi to yell out in pain before he could stop himself. The blow sent him spinning around, and a second to his back shoved him into the side of an abandoned car. Masumi gasped as the world blurred and tilted. He heard a yell and the clash of metal on metal, indicating that at least one of the others had intervened.

"Masumi!" A pair of hands grasped his arm and helped him stay on his feet. "Masumi, are you okay?!" His vision was fuzzy, but he recognized his sister's face looking worriedly down at him.

"Ma... Matsuri," he gasped, "You need to get out of here. It's not safe, you need to-"

"What? I need to do what, Masumi? Leave you here to die?! Like hell!"

Masumi stared at her as she looped his arm over her shoulders and started pulling him away from the fight. Eiji's shout prompted him to look back to see the Dazzling Adventurer falling backwards. BoukenBlue jumped in, clearly having recovered enough from the Orb's influence and re-transformed when Masumi hadn't been paying attention. BoukenRed and Pink attacked from behind, but Yaiba knocked Blue back in time to spin around and block.

He stopped, refusing to let Matsuri drag him any farther. "I need to help them."

"How? You can barely stand!"

It was true, but that hadn't stopped him before. "That is _my_ nemesis, kicking _my_ team around, because of _my_ screw-ups. I can't just sit by and watch!"

Matsuri stared at him, clearly stunned. Then she got a determined look in her eyes and set her jaw. "Well, then. If you're going to fight, then so am I." He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. "Don't even _think_ of trying to convince me otherwise. I just got you back, I won't lose you now! That's what you were thinking when you came here, isn't it? You're _my_ little brother, and nobody hurts what's mine without paying dearly for it!"

He was silent for a minute, then Masumi gave a breathless laugh. "That must run in the family. Alight, then." He drew on what strength he had left, managing to stand up straight on his own, and handed her his SurviBlaster. "This guy's exceptionally fast up close, so you'd better keep your distance. Just don't shoot me or the others."

She grinned and took the weapon.

If there was one thing Yaiba hadn't been expecting, it was for BoukenBlack to come charging back into the fray, yelling and brandishing his Radial Hammer out in front of him. The Fast Adventurer took a powerful swipe, only for it to be blocked by Yaiba's sword. Then something told him to duck, and he did so just as Matsuri's shots zipped over his head and caught the villain by surprise. The blast knocked him back and allowed BoukenBlack and Red to get a hit in each.

"Black!" BoukenPink called, "Get out! You shouldn't be here!"

"Now's _not_ the time to discuss this!" he shot back, dodging a swipe of the blade, blocking the second with the staff of his Hammer, and managing to kick Yaiba back, "I'm here, deal with it!" He winced as he said this, pretty certain that he'd torn some of the stitches in his side with that move.

For the next minute, the six of them managed to gain ground against Yaiba. The Boukengers would strike in up close, then give Matsuri and opening to fire off a few shots from behind a car, than they'd attack again while he was distracted. And for that one minute, it'd worked, until Yaiba deflected one of Matsuri's shots so that it hit BoukenSilver. He then brought down a startled Blue and Pink, leaving only Red and the twins.

"Is this all the strength you've gained in two years?" he spat, "Pitiful." He knocked down the two men with one swipe. "I thought I would actually have a challenge. 1000 PAPER CRANE BLIZZARD!"

Matsuri gasped and bolted out from behind the car just as the attack hit it and blew it up. The SurviBlaster flew from her hand as she dove to the ground.

"Matsuri!" Masumi yelled, "Agh!" Yaiba was now standing with one foot on his chest and putting his weight on it. His already abused ribs groaned in protest, and Masumi struggled to breathe. Pain radiated through his whole body as his vision grew fuzzy. "You bastard," he gasped.

"No!" he heard his sister scream. His comrades were struggling to get back up.

Yaiba raised his sword. "I should have done this a long time ago," he stated coldly, and brought his weapon down.

"NO!" Masumi was surprised to see his Radial Hammer, which had been knocked out of his hands as he was taken down, swinging into his line of sight and smacking Yaiba right into his chest. He scrambled to his feet, clutching his side. Yeah, those stitches were definitely ripped now. He could actually feel the blood flowing under his suit. Matsuri steadied him. "Are you oaky?" she asked shakily.

"For now, yeah." He glared at the blue-armoured bastard who'd made his life hell. "Let's finish him."

Summoning the AccelTector, he gripped the Hammer with her. "On my mark."

Yaiba staggered to his feet, growling. "I will not be defeated again."

"We'll see," Akashi gasped as he stood up, "Masumi! Matsuri! Finish it!"

"Like we weren't about to," Masumi muttered.

"HAMMER DYNAMITE!" The end of the Hammer glowed brightly, and with a yell, brother and sister swung as hard as they could.

The blow knocked Yaiba back several feet, his armour cracked and sparking. Masumi shut his eyes ad he was forced to look away from the blinding explosion that consumed his nemesis - again.

Beside him, Matsuri gasped. "Is it... Is it over? Did we win?"

Masumi turned to her, now more exhausted and agonised than ever. "Yeah," he breathed, before his legs gave out, and she had to catch him to keep him from hitting the pavement. His body had decided that now that he wasn't fighting for his life anymore, it was going to shut down for a while.

"Masumi?!" He wasn't sure who called his name, letting his eyes drift shut.

* * *

Matsuri clutched her brother's hand tightly. He'd been out cold for over twenty-four hours. His wife Natsuki was on the other side, holding his hand with both of hers. The rest of Masumi's team, both the current and former members, had crashed in the chairs lining the infirmary wall.

After defeating Yami no Yaiba, Matsuri had reached her limit and broken down, sobbing over her motionless brother until the blue-jacketed one had scooped her up, and she'd passed out in his arms. It was no surprise; her memories of the past few days were fuzzy, especially the parts hen she was under Yaiba's control, but she knew for a fact that she hadn't slept or eaten at all, and was thus beyond exhausted. She'd woken up in the bed next to her twin, but it had been several hours since, and he showed no signs of stirring. Granted, he'd also had numerous injuries and blood loss to deal with. The cuts on his palms had reopened, and he'd torn up every last one of the stitches in his side, as well as gaining a new set of bruises in the fight, plus two cracked ribs.

Behind her, Mogami-san (Blue) muttered something unintelligible in his sleep. Matsuri dimly recalled how he'd been affected by Erebus' Orb when he'd tried to grab her. She hadn't been able to hear what he was saying to himself, and she wasn't about to try and lean in for a better listen. Michi-oba had once stated that a person's past was their own business, and that it was their choice and nobody else's to share it.

Akashi-san and Nishihori-san were sitting together, his arm around her and her head resting on his shoulder. Takaoka-san had grinned wickedly when he'd first noticed them, and had taken a picture of as evidence for the harassment he and the others were going to put them through later. Matsuri felt sorry for the couple, but that had been just after she'd woken up, and she'd been too focused on her still-unconscious brother to really care.

Takaoka-san himself was sprawled over his chair, head tilted back, and was snoring lightly. Occasionally he'd mumble something, but like with Mogami-san, Matsuri couldn't make out the words. The only thing she'd picked out had sounded something was like 'turnip', or 'stump'*, though she'd probably misheard.

A stifled yawn drew her attention over to Natsuki-chan, and she frowned as the other woman blinked sleep out of her eyes. Matsuri didn't she'd slept of eaten at all since Masumi was brought in the first time, and given her delicate condition, that was far from good. "Perhaps you should try and rest," she suggested softly, though she didn't think it would work. Everyone in the room, and a couple others currently absent, had tried and failed at convincing her to lie down, even in the next bed over. She was proving to be just as stubborn as her husband when pushed.

Natsuki-chan shook her head. "I want to be right here when he wakes up."

"Natsuki-chan, I seriously doubt Masumi would want you tiring yourself out like-"

"And I didn't want him to run off and fight, but he did anyway!" she snapped, tears in her eyes, "He's been there for me for as long as I can remember. I can't lose him. When I came back in here and found his bed empty I-" She choked back a sob.

Matsuri reached over and took Natsuki-chan's hands. "But you haven't lost him. He's right here, see? And I may not have known him for a long time... but somehow, I just _know_ that he left so that the four of us could be a family, together. And I know he didn't want to hurt you. When he told me about how you met, the love in his voice was so strong that a deaf man could hear it!"

Natsuki-chan looked up at her in surprise, before moving to touch the bump in her stomach with one hand. "He's kicking," she stated, a smile spreading on her face, "Here, feel it!" She pulled Matsuri's hands so that they were resting there as well. Matsuri grinned when she felt a fluttering pressure under her palm. She knew the feeling quite well, drawing on her experience from her aunt's six pregnancies (she had only five cousins because the second baby had been stillborn). "See, baby?" Natsuki-chan said, "This is your oba-san, Matsuri. She's a very smart lady." Matsuri blushed heavily at the compliment.

"That she is." The two women gave a startled gasp at the hoarse whisper and looked up to see Masumi blinking up at them tiredly.

"MASUMI!" they both cried, waking the room's other four occupants and sending the doctor bursting from his office.

"Awake again, I see," he muttered, already beginning to check his patient's vitals, "Really, once is more than enough, did you really have to land yourself in here twice in three days?" The male twin responded only with a weak, sheepish grin.

Natsuki-chan took her husband's hand again. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?!" she pleaded, "When I came back and saw that you were gone, I was so scared that you weren't going to come back, that our son would have to grow up without knowing you!" Tears were falling from her eyes now.

Masumi gazed sorrowfully back at her, fingers contracting weakly around her hand. "I'm sorry, he gasped, "I'm so, so sorry, Natsuki." He then looked over at Matsuri, his relief obvious. "You're okay?"

Despite her own frustration with his reckless actions, Matsuri smiled back gratefully. "Thanks to you."

"Hey, what are siblings for?"

Matsuri felt like she was about to cry. After twenty long years, she finally had her brother back, and for good this time. After a bare second of hesitation, she leaned forward and hugged him as best as she could, taking mind of his injuries. He weakly put his free arm around her, but clearly didn't have the strength to do much else.

* * *

The other six in the room let them have their moment for a minute, before Sōta patted her on the shoulder. "I guess this makes you part of the family, then," he told her with a mildly flirtatious grin.

Satoru smiled at that. This team had, essentially, become a family. Natsuki's parents were long since dead, Masumi had never knoen his family until now, Sōta just plain refused to talk about his, and everyone knew Eiji's tragic backstory. As for himself and Sakura, neither of them had a good relationship with their remaining relatives, though he and his father were starting to smooth things over. Each member of the team had had a distinct lack of relatives to rely on, so they'd drifted together, slowly but surely, to create their own family. The discovery of Masumi's family would hardly break that apart, Satoru knew, but rather simply add new people into the fold.

The doctor then ushered them all from the room, save for Matsuri and Natsuki, stating that Masumi needed more rest. Grumbling quietly, the rest of them left, though not before reiterating that they thought that what Masumi did was stupid and reckless, but they were glad that he was alright.

Satoru was the last to leave, and he glanced back over his shoulder one last time. Seeing Masumi with his wife and newfound sister, the former leader was proud of how far his chosen successor had come.

* * *

***The Japanese word 'kabu' can mean either 'turnip' or 'stock/stump'.**

**So I'll be seeing you guys next Saturday with the epilogue!**


	7. Epilogue

**Hey, guys, so this is it. It's been years since I first started writing this story, and between writer's block and new ideas, it's changed so much from my original idea. Thanks to all my readers, and as a treat I have a preview for my new Shinkenger fic, which unfortunately won't be out for a long while, as I have four other new fics to post before that, plus three re-posts before them.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Boukenger, Shinkenger, or any of their characters.**

**WORD COUNT: 1,166**

* * *

Epilogue

Masumi bit his lip as he gazed at the doors standing before him. He still didn't feel ready for this.

It had taken him three weeks to recover from his ordeal - enough to be allowed out and about, anyway. He wasn't going on missions anytime soon. During that time, Akashi and Sakura-neesan stayed with the team temporarily to fill his and Natsuki's spots. They'd be going back into space soon, but for now it was good to have them around again. It had felt like a piece of their family was missing while they were gone.

Once Masumi was finally allowed to leave his infirmary bed, though, he and Natsuki had taken time off to get to know his sister, aunt, and cousins better at their home. The cousins had been ecstatic to see him alive. Michi-oba alternated between smothering him and Matsuri and talking with Natsuki (as a mother of five, her advice was gratefully accepted).

On June twenty-ninth, 2009, nearly three weeks after he was due, Inō Yasuka was finally born. Michi-oba had been moved to tears when she'd learned the name they'd given him. Akashi and Sakura-neesan had been named the godparents, and Masumi was grateful for the support of his whole family. The funny thing was that June 29th was the day Masumi had believed to be his birthday for the past twenty years. It would take some time to adjust to the fact that he was two and a half months younger than he'd always thought, but if that meant Yasuka didn't have to share a birthday with his father, then so be it.

Now, about seven weeks after his son's birth, Masumi found himself standing with his wife and his sister outside the mental institution where his mother had been residing for the past two decades. He'd been putting this off for a while, but finally Matsuri's persistence had won out, so they'd left Yasuka at the Ikeda house and driven down here.

His sister put a hand on his shoulder, and he glanced back at her. _"It'll be all right,"_ her eyes told him. Sōta had joked that they'd made up for lost time and had already developed 'twin telepathy', since they were able to read each other's expressions perfectly with a glance.

Masumi sighed, though. "How do we know if she'll even recognise him me?" he whispered, "It _has_ been more than twenty years." It was what worried him the most. He did want to see his mother, but if she didn't know him...

Matsuri took his hand. "We don't," she admitted, and he knew the thought had also crossed her mind multiple times, "But we won't find out unless we go in."

He looked to Natsuki, and she smiled encouragingly. "Natsuki will be right there with you," she stated, already holding his other hand, "Always."

He smiled back, and took a deep breath. "Let's do this, then."

Matsuri had visited their mother enough times that the staff recognised her almost immediately. The question of how to introduce him was solved by one of the older nurses, who picked up on the twins' resemblance to each other at first glance, and promptly cried out in delight and hugged him, to his surprise and the girls' amusement. It was arranged to bring Saitō Chise to a private room, where Matsuri would gently explain the situation first, before Masumi came in.

It didn't go as well as planned.

Their mother had firmly come to the conclusion that he was dead, and would break down if any of her beliefs were challenged. "Stop lying to me, Matsuri!" she cried, her eyes full of tears, "Stop lying! Your brother's gone, why are you pretending he's not?!" She was nearing hysterics. Matsuri had explained her condition over the past three months, that she was overcome with grief and paranoia, and did not handle any sort of change well.

Matsuri was more than a bit distraught herself. "I'm not lying, Kaa-san, I've found Masumi! He's alive and well, and he really wants to see you!"

"Stop it!" Chise reached out and slapped her daughter across the cheek. "I won't listen to another word of this!" She stormed over to the door, and Matsuri was too shocked from the slap to stop her.

Unfortunately, Masumi happened to be standing on the other side, ready to come in. She froze for a moment, then lunged at him. "No!" she wailed, "I'm not listening to you lairs! You liars!" A pair of orderlies managed to pull her off her son, and one was able to inject a dose of sedatives into her shoulder. The medication worked quickly, and she soon slumped in their grip, whimpering "Liars" as she was led back to her room.

Matsuri rushed over to her brother, who hugged her tightly. A nurse squeezed his shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she said empathetically, "But we have managed to get through to her with other things before. It will just take time."

As they left the institution, Masumi wondered why she hadn't believed he was still out there. His sister had known it, so how come her mother's instincts hadn't told her the same thing?

"I don't know," Matsuri responded dejectedly when he voiced the question, "I was so hoping she'd be happy to see you, that she'd get better and come home." A tear ran unchecked down her cheek. "I've wanted her home for so long."

Masumi tightened his arm around her shoulder. "I guess we can't have everything we want," he whispered.

"Well, at least I now have you back. And even more people to add to my family." She smiled across him at Natsuki, who was on his other arm.

Natsuki grinned back. "That's right," she chirped, "and the whole team thinks of you as our sister. Well, except one..." She trailed off and giggled, while Matsuri tried and failed to hide a smile and blushed furiously.

"Huh?" Masumi was totally confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, Masumi, haven't you seen the way she and Sōta-san act around each other?"

"Natsuki-chan!" Matsuri cried.

"Wait, what?" He stared at his sister in disbelief. "You and Sōta?! Since when?!"

Her blush deepened. "We're not together, if that's what you're thinking!"

"But you want to be," Natsuki teased.

"I am _not_ hearing this," Masumi groaned.

They continued bickering all the way to the car, and by the time he got there, Masumi had come to two conclusions.

One: He wouldn't trade this for the world, even if his own mother didn't recognise him.

And two: He and his sub-chief were going to have a _long_ talk when they got back.

* * *

**So that's it for Sentai fics for a while, but... Here's a preview for 'Chichi no Tsumi', though it's only the draft version.**

_**Takeru was pissed off. The Ayakashi he, Ryūnosuke, and Mako had been chasing had gotten away from them by ducking back into the Sanzu River through a crack in the pavement. What the hell was that all about?**_

_**"That was strange," Mako commented, clearly thinking along the same lines, "Why would two Ayakashi show up, and then just ran away?"**_

_**"I have no idea," Ryūnosuke replied, "It's almost like they came up to the surface for some reason other than fighting us. And why did they split up when they ran? Strength in numbers, and all that?"**_

_**"Strength in numbers..." Takeru repeated, "The Ayakashi weren't the only ones who split."**_

_**Mako caught on almost immediately and pulled out her Shodophone. "Kotoha!" she called into it, "Genta! Chiaki!"**_

_**There was no response at first, only a bit of static. Then Kotoha's voice could be heard, clearly in distress. **_**"Mako-san!"_ she cried, _"It was a trap! Another Ayakashi came out of nowhere, and they took Chiaki!"**

_**"What?!" Ryūnosuke grabbed the Shodophone out of Mako's hand.**_

**"We didn't even know he was there."_ Genta's voice joined the conversation. _"He just grabbed me and Koto-chan with those tentacles of his and tossed us aside."**

_**Takeru swore to himself and pulled out his own Shodophone. "Stay where you are," he ordered, "We'll be right there."**_

_**Ryūnosuke and Mako looked pale. "What are we going to do, **_**Tono_?" the former asked._**

**_The young lord sighed. "I don't know," he admitted._**


End file.
